AIR CARRIER REAL RETURN ON ASSETS

AIR CARRIER REAL RETURN ON ASSETS

Real Return on Assets for Large U.S. Air Carriers (quarterly data, not seasonally adjusted)

Return on assets is a measure of the profitability of investment adjusted for
inflation. Improving profits depends on a combination of holding down costs while
growing revenue.

Return on Assets for Large U.S. Air Carriers

Q2 01

Q2 02

Return over last quarter (percent)

-2.21

-3.74

Return over last quarter change from same quarter previous year

-7.70

-1.53

Return over last year (percent)

-0.55

-6.32

Return over last year change from same quarter previous year

-3.67

-5.76

NOTES: Data for the last year are preliminary.

The current value is compared to the value from the same period in the previous
year to account for seasonality.

Return on assets is the ratio of net income to the average of beginning- and
end-of-period assets for large air carriers. When net income and assets are deflated
using the average CPI, the nominal rate of return is converted into a real rate
of return.

The data include profits of both foreign and domestic operations for U.S. air
carriers with more than 20 million dollars in annual operating revenue.

SOURCES: U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics,
Air Carrier Financial Statistics data; and U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of
Labor Statistics, available at: http://www.bls.gov/cpi/.